David Russ, PhD, Licensed Practicing Psychologist

Christopher McCarthy, MEd, Licensed Professional Counselor

Understanding Childhood Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is often more subtle and harder to recognize than other anxiety disorders, especially in kids. It can look more like eccentric behavior than an actual anxiety disorder. Unlike other kinds of anxiety it can be kept hidden by the sufferer. It can seem silly or ridiculous to a person unfamiliar with it. That is why most children go to great lengths to keep the symptoms to themselves. However, OCD is neither silly nor ridiculous and can be a very serious anxiety problem.

OCD is characterized by recurrent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors and/or thoughts (compulsions) used to relieve the anxious thoughts. Obsess comes from a Latin word that means to besiege a city. Obsessive thoughts really do besiege and occupy one's mind like an invading army. These distressing thoughts feel like intruders and carry an underlying sense of danger. A child will try to suppress or ignore the thoughts without success. Performing compulsions, or "rituals", can provide temporary relief. Compulsions have a powerful sense of urgency so a child feels driven to do them. If the compulsions take more than an hour a day to perform in total, the problem has reached a critical threshold. Compulsions can be behaviors such as hand washing, organizing, checking, or mental acts like ritualized praying, counting, repeating words silently. Much is done privately so a parent or adult may not realize the extent of the symptoms.

In the Turnaround program, a young man named Matt has OCD. He struggles with probably the most common type of OCD, fear of contamination. He shares his struggle with the other campers and his symptoms appear several times during the journey. Towards the end of the 10-day trip, Mario joins the group. He is a "graduate" of last year's program. He shares his story of overcoming his compulsions by using the techniques taught in the program (exposure and response prevention). We provide a very thorough explanation and specific steps to help kids overcome this stubborn type of anxiety. The Parent Guide covers OCD in more detail including how to recognize it.

How is OCD cured in Children?

What works consistently is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy - specifically exposure and response prevention. Based on the research, nothing comes even close to the success of exposure and response prevention. In the largest OCD study so far (with adults) this treatment was compared against an effective medication. The result for response prevention was 86% improvement. Wow. For the medication, 48%. Pretty good. For the control or placebo group, 10%. In the world of research, this is an amazing result. Here is a link to the entire study: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/162/1/151.

So we know what works. I am a psychologist; I love what I do. But if your child has OCD the normal approaches most of us use such as insight, encouragement, self-awareness, and problem-solving won't help. OCD is stubborn but treatable. But it is sneaky so you have to approach it from a unexpected perspective so you can outmaneuver it. We know our program works. We also know that it won't always work. Anxiety is a moving target. Nothing will always work. Here is the science: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is the best practice for anxiety. If our program isn't the final word for you child, look for CBT treatment center. 

Here is the thing that makes or breaks treatment: Is it delivered effectively? The science is there, but will your young son or daughter get it? Will it make sense to them? Will they be persuaded to engage? This is where Turnaround stands alone.

The 3 Key Factors of ALL Treatment

1. Yucky Feelings (how we describe it to kids). Learning to manage one’s own nervous system is part of growing up. It is why when a young child is hungry they cry and why adults don’t (at least on the outside-or maybe that is just me cause I still feel like crying on the inside.) There is evidence that for people with OCD and other anxiety, their nervous tends toward hyper arousal. In other words, it has a hair trigger. Part of curing anxiety is learning how to identify the arousal process right at the very beginning. Notice your shoulders right now. Are they more tense than they need to be? Can you relax them a little bit? That is a simple example of the discipline needed to “chill” the nervous system. This can be breathing, relaxing, eating better, getting exercise, sunshine, sleeping better, etc. This is what medication treats. It puts the brakes on the fight or flight system or at least takes the foot off the accelerator. It is something that can be learned. In Turnaround we start teaching the essential practices on day three and if your child keeps it up, it is transforming. There is no mystery to this. It is learning to breathe in a certain way and learning to relax. Both must be practiced. It involves paying attention to one's body in new ways and interpreting it differently. Hey, think how often getting "kranked up" is practiced by anyone stuggling with OCD! You can't lift weights once or twice and expect to be ripped. You have to train your nervous system to counter-balance this hyper aroused system. This powerful underlying "over-arousal" often runs in the background with OCD. However, it is there and important to treat.

2. Whacky Thoughts. Identifying and disputing anxiety-causing-thinking is also part of all treatment. This is usually the first thing people try to do for anxious kids. We all try to talk our kids out of being scared. We are usually right -seriously, I mean that. (Remember when they used to actually listen to us...those were the days) Isn’t curious why it just seems to bounce off of them? It would be awesome if we could climb inside their little brains and find the right mistake to address. That is what is hard. If you have asked in exasperation, “Why do you think you are feeling this way!?” and got back, “I don’t know?!” we feel you. With OCD it involves understanding how previous attempts to solve the problem are making it worse. Actually, for young children they may not yet be developmentally capable to really be able to describe those thinking errors. So we spell it out for them. In Turnaround we devote three days (three of the ten CDs) entirely to this as well various times throughout. The "whacky thoughts" (our name for them) are usually these subtle sneaky little critters. That is why we bring up the most common ones in the program to help spell them out. Sometimes we are obvious about that and sometimes we are sneaky little critters ourselves and do it when no one is looking. I would tell you when but then I would have to “CIA you” and well….

3. Zany Responses. With OCD this is the key thing to address. It is also the hardest and happens to be crucial for most types of OCD. You have to literally ignore your bodies warning signals. In Turnaround we wait until CD eight to start kids on this. We want to build up all the resources needed for facing fear. The “psych-speak” for this is exposure and response prevention. Exposure is simply doing something, on purpose, that causes anxiety. Response prevention is postponing something, on purpose, that relieves anxiety. You can do this all at once or gradually. It just seems so opposite of what you would want to do when you are anxious! That is why we spend a lot of time talking about it and working up to it. For this to work (and it does) a child has to do this voluntarily. You can know exactly what works but you have to be persuaded that it will work for you. That is where Turnaround is so crucial. It persuades and makes sense to children.

Any treatment your child participates in is addressing one of more of these three issues. In Turnaround we didn't invent the treatment. It is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. Read online and you will discover this is the best practice for anxiety with kids, adults, everyone. What we did is translate it into "childish". Hey! That is exactly what I get accused of being! One person who interviewed us asked us where we got our crazy characters. I think it is because we never really grew up. Oh well, at least for once it helps....

Why Should you Purchase Turnaround? Ten Reasons.

Ten reasons why should you should get turnaround:

1. It is based on Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). If you can find a therapist who is trained in CBT and has the materials needed then by all means take your child to see that person. If you don’t have that option or it isn’t a fit for your child, then you need Turnaround.
2. You will pay more for one or two counseling sessions than you will for the complete Turnaround program. If you have insurance, you might get a few more sessions but not many. In fact, you will pay more for a video game console than Turnaround. The best selling adult audio program sells for over $500. For now, this is a seriously good deal. We will raise the price down the road.
3. Anxiety tends to build steam if it is not treated. Most adults with anxiety started feeling anxious as kids. The sooner you address anxiety the easier it is to overcome it. If your child learns the skills to overcome anxiety now they can be free of future anxiety problems. If it is building then the longer it goes the worse it gets.
4. There is literally nothing else like Turnaround. Down to the smallest details it is designed for kids. For example, with rare exception, no one speaks for more than a minute at a time. What is happening is always changing, just like cartoons. Other programs are e-books or adult type lectures. Kids with anxiety don't want to read academic explanations or listen to a boring lecture about something they don't want to think about.  
5. Kids like stories. They like funny characters. They like adventure. Do you know of any other psychological treatment that is anything like that?
6. You will like it…probably. I can promise it is easier than listening to an episode of a certain dinosaur (I know this from experience-I can't get that dang song out of my head!). Although Robots and Finding Nemo beat it hands down they don’t have to also be a psychological treatment!
7. You do not have to become an expert or the resident therapist, you just have to listen along and participate with your child. We know how busy families are so you will have to find the time to do this. That isn't as easy as it might seem. At least you don't have to find time to read a 1000 pages of material. We've read tens of thousands and we still have much to learn. 
8. At the risk of sounding arrogant, we know what we are doing. Just because someone overcame anxiety doesn’t mean they have earned a doctorate in counseling. It is really frustrating to see someone claiming to be an "internationally known expert on overcoming fear" when they have absolutely no credentials. We have been treating people with anxiety for over 30 years between us. We got this.
9. Turnaround provides information and skills that are useful for life period, not just anxiety. What a gift to give your child. It is a fun story but also builds skills and coping methods that are life-changing. We are selling this for a very small price given how much it cost to produce. Even if it helps 25% isn't that worth it?
10. If your child does not find it helpful, send it back. We will give you a refund. We know that is just one more thing in your busy life and if you try to send something back it isn’t as simple as it sounds. But we really will give you your money back. We may not dance with joy but we will give it back!

Learn more about the creators

Benefits of Turnaround

Turnaround Guarantees Your Child's Freedom From OCD

In Turnaround your child will:

• Understand what Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is.
• Master their compulsions through proven, scientifically researched techniques.
• Laugh as they listen to this fun and entertaining treatment program.
• Calm themselves by using effective mind and body exercises
• Sleep better and go to sleep faster
• Express their thoughts and feelings to you about their obsessions through a new shared language
• Break Through their compulsive patterns of controlling their fears.
• Break free from the bondage of OCD.

Other Features Include:

• Based upon cognitive-behavioral therapy, the therapeutic intervention that research has shown to be the most effective treatment for anxiety.
• Provides accurate information in a child-friendly manner. Anxiety is comprised of three components, cognitions (thoughts), body reactions (feelings), and coping behaviors. In Turnaround, each component is explained for the child to easily understand.
• Turnaround was specifically created for children! From the first day of script writing, the co-creators of the program have always made it a priority that the material must be child friendly and presented in a manner the children would relate to and enjoy.
• Provides a recipe for children to follow in dealing with their anxious symptoms. A recipe is a set of instructions that offers understanding, action steps and meaningful options for coping with anxiety.
• Turnaround provides a narrative experience that allows the child to make sense of their own story.
• Turnaround offers parents and child a shared vocabulary in which to express the thoughts and feelings of anxiety.
• Provides a community for your child to be vicariously part of. Children who feel they are not alone but have others they can relate to have less anxiety.

Learn more about the benefits

The Turnaround Audio Program includes:

• Turnaround Program for kids (10 CDs)
• Turnaround Journal, a 74 page workbook for kids
• Chill Kit, relaxation guide for kids (1 CD)
• Parent Guide, packed full of helpful information and techniques to help parents (2 CDs)

Parents Enjoy Listening

“The Turnaround CDs and journal have been life changing at our house. Our son struggles with anxiety related to perfectionism and social situations. The kids on the CD were easy for him to relate to. The other characters were funny and made the program entertaining which, in turn, made it easy to get our son to listen to them. The journal and CDs were helpful for our whole family to understand more about what is going on in our bodies and minds when we are anxious. Turnaround is an essential tool for any home with an anxious child. Our son has been applying the techniques he learned almost daily and we are all enjoying the freedom!”

Kelly C.

“All my children loved the story and wanted to listen to it repeatedly. They loved the kids on the team and especially the teen leader, Emily. I loved how it gave me a vocabulary in which to speak to my children about their fears! It far exceeded my expectations and I think every parent should listen to it, regardless if their children have major anxieties. It's a therapeutic, educational, and parenting tool all in one!”

Wini, mother of 4 children ages 5 to 9 years old